


Clear Sight

by JainaDurron7



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25715776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JainaDurron7/pseuds/JainaDurron7
Summary: Paul Blofis has attracted the eye of Sally Jackson in their writing seminar. Fortunately, it doesn't take her clear sight for Sally to see through his act.
Relationships: Sally Jackson/Poseidon (Percy Jackson)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 105





	Clear Sight

**Author's Note:**

> Well, hello there! This is my first time really wandering into the world of fanfic for a fandom other than Star Wars, so I'm nervous, but also really excited. To mark my debut in the PJO fandom, I thought I'd start with one of my trademark outlandish AUs! Hope you enjoy!

Sally packed for her first day in the writing seminar much the same way she would pack for every one of Percy’s first days at a new school: with her laptop, a notebook, fresh pencils, and a Tupperware of blue cookies. The cookies had grown to be as much a comfort to her as they had her son, and she found it only fitting that they be her go-to comfort food to anxiously nibble at on her first day. Besides, today would be a huge milestone in her life post-Gabriel Ugliano, and Sally relished the feeling of power it gave her to load her shoulder bag with everything blue just to raise a single-finger salute to her dear ex-husband.

Yes, her pencils were blue, her notebook’s cover was blue, and Percy had even bought her a blue case for her laptop as a present for her first day. She stored all these things in her _white_ bag (she figured a blue bag might be going a bit overboard) and ran through it a few times just to make sure she had everything there.

She took a subway out of Manhattan, walked through the bustling streets of New York City, and braced herself as she came to the right campus lecture hall. School. Sally could hardly believe she was finally going back, finally revisiting the dreams of her long-ago youth. She’d given up on this dream when she’d married Gabe, and it felt truly fantastical like it was only possible due to the magic of ancient gods. Sally recalled Percy telling her about how Annabeth’s mother Athena had helped her father Frederick study to get into Harvard and paid for most of his tuition. Sally had never expected something like that from Poseidon, and she truly didn’t want it. She’d had to drop out of high school to take care of her sick uncle, and that had made getting here so much harder. But she’d gotten here by herself, and she would get through it on her own will power, too. She’d always been an independent person, something of a free spirit, and she’d learned before Percy’s birth that Poseidon could only do so much for her. She’d endured her parents’ deaths and losing so much of her childhood without the help of a god; she could do this on her own too.

The great lecture hall was somewhat intimidating as Sally entered. The floor gradually slanted like a downward ramp from the double entry doors to the open space below where Sally could imagine the professor would pace and lounge while ranting for an hour on setting, tone, and universal themes. Sally was considerably early as the seats were just beginning to fill in, so she chose a spot near the middle of the amphitheater and settled in.

Mindlessly, she teetered a pencil between her fingers, flipped through the endless blank pages of her new notebook, and tapped her foot to the beat of a song Percy was always playing. What felt like hours of anxious anticipation finally ended to Sally’s relief as the professor strode in swiftly, carrying a leather satchel over his shoulder. A few students were just finding seats, and Sally jumped in her own as someone approached her and asked, “This seat taken?”

Sally’s gaze flashed briefly to the man standing at the end of the row, then to the empty seat beside her. She put on a friendly smile and shook her head. “No. Not at all.”

“Thank you.” The man’s smile brightened, tugging the corners of his lips until his chin and eyes creased in an abundance of laugh lines. Sally tucked her legs in for him as he smoothly sidled into the empty seat. He shrugged off a modest and worn bag that was nearly bursting with papers and folders with highlighters and green and red pens sticking out of the exterior pockets. From the chaotic bundle, he pulled out a hefty notebook, set it on his lap, and extended Sally his hand. “My name is Paul.”

“Sally,” she smiled back, firmly shaking his hand. Nothing about her firm and sure grip seemed to surprise him. “You look like this isn’t your first class,” she noted wryly.

He jested back, “And you seem like this is your first.”

Sally grimaced, maintaining her good-humored smile. “Is it that obvious?”

“Hey, don’t worry. You seem very confident. I’m sure this seminar will be no problem for you.”

“That’s generous, but I’m afraid it’s been a while since I’ve been in a classroom.”

Paul shrugged, pulling a black pen from his bag and clicking it. “Those are the most dedicated studentsɘ— the ones who have to work to get where they want to be. The ones who want to.”

Sally glanced away, more embarrassed than she was intimidated. “You must have quite the skills in reading people.”

If anything, Paul seemed more put off by the hints that he’d made her uncomfortable, and he squirmed in his seat like an antsy child until Sally looked at him again. Paul had green eyes that seemed to flicker with a hint of blue for just a second before he regained his confidence and told her, “It comes in handy with my profession. I’m a teacher.”

“Any chance you teach English?”

That seemed to put Paul at much greater ease, and he sat back in his chair, his composure suddenly overturned with a slightly mischievous sort of confidence. “I think I might be able to help you out with this seminar.”

* * *

Sally shouldn’t have initiated a second study date. In hindsight, she should have been more hesitant to agree to the first. But she couldn’t help herself. She really had no excuse. Perhaps, part of her really was curious to hear him out. But, mostly, Sally knew she just wanted to see him again.

Paul stumbled into her apartment in his usual awkward manner. Like a gracious host, Sally smiled brightly, inviting him into her apartment. He smiled back, color heating his face. He dropped his notebooks and things on Sally’s table, found a pen to busy his hands with, and clicked and twiddled with it in that nervous way he’d quickly adopted. When Sally joined him at her table, he took a breath and plunged in. “So, I believe last week we were discussing tightening up our characterization—“

“I don’t want to write tonight.”

Paul blinked, yet managed his surprise well. Part of Sally wondered if he even was surprised. “Pardon?”

“You just got here. We don’t have to start with the assignment right away.”

Paul, acting considerably baffled, cautiously set down his pen. “If you insist. Is there something else on your mind?”

“Well, I figured we could get to know each other better. I don’t know much about you besides the fact that you’re a high school English teacher, you take classes at NYU, and the password to your tablet is ‘Montauk92’ after your favorite vacation spot.”

Paul blushed, laughing, and he wagged a finger in her direction. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you that.”

But Sally wasn’t laughing anymore. Gone was the good-natured humor, replaced with more of the usual stress which sat heavily on her shoulders. The smallest hint of crow’s feet pulled at her eyes, and she withheld a sigh before she asked him, “Poseidon, what are you doing here?”

Paul blinked. He hesitated for only a moment before a quiet sigh escaped him. His eyes transformed at once, melting into a more familiar sea green; salt and pepper hair gave way to darker, thicker waves. He opened his mouth to speak, chiseled jaw now bearing a neatly trimmed dark beard, but nothing came out.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t figure it out?”

“Sally …”

“No, no. Now, I want to hear just what you had planned. Or, was there even a plan?”

Sally couldn’t find it in herself to muster a glare and direct it his way or even frown or summon the leftover pain she sometimes felt from the ancient sea god leaving her. No, if anything, she was sad. Yet she couldn’t help but smile at Poseidon, her lips gently twisting in bittersweetness.

_Gods,_ she hated that he still had this effect on her. That, fourteen years later, she still couldn’t let go. No matter what she did or thought, her heart still beat just a little faster when she saw him.

“Heh,” Poseidon managed a nervous, struggling chuckle. “I can’t say there was ever much to the plan. I just— I needed to see you again.” He blinked. “I’m sorry, Sally. I swear— I swear on the river Styx that I don’t want to hurt you or cause you or Percy any pain.”

“I know.”

“I should have—” He shook his head, frustration bubbling just behind his stormy eyes. He huffed a sigh, his shoulders falling, gaze returning to settle on Sally. “I shouldn’t have. I shouldn’t have come back.”

Sally raised a brow, more analytical than disapproving. “Just like how you shouldn’t have approached me on Montauk in the first place?”

Poseidon sat back, considerably surprised by the jab. “Yeah. I guess so.”

“But you still did.”

“I couldn’t resist a queen among mortals.”

Sally rolled her eyes, though something in her still burst with pleasure at the praises coming from the god. “As I was saying, you shouldn’t have approached me at Montauk that summer. If only for your own interests. With the pact between you and your brothers and all. But you did anyway.”

“A grave mistake,” Poseidon admitted. “I could have helped myself, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to get to know you, Sally. I wanted to be with you.”

She let herself smile just a little. “And because of that, we have Percy.”

He nodded. “You gave me Percy.”

“I guess I’m just wondering what makes this moment any different from then? You shouldn’t have approached me on Montauk, but you did. You shouldn’t have come to find me again. But you have.”

“Well, yes.”

“And, I suppose,” Sally shrugged, leaning against the table, her gaze never leaving Poseidon’s for a second. She ran a finger along the edge of the kitchen table, pushing aside her notebook and pens. “Having already realized who you were, I shouldn’t have let you come back.”

Poseidon blinked again, that gesture of helpless cluelessness that Sally had immediately recognized as Poseidon’s, his nervous habit rather than a trait of this _Paul Blofis._ Sally marveled at the exhibit, took great pride in the power she, a mere mortal, had over the earthshaker himself, god of the sea, storms, droughts, and floods. For all his power and might, all the wrath he could bring down upon the Mediterranean or Aegean seas, Sally Jackson could back Poseidon into a corner and summon true fear to his face.

He released a breath that came with more weight than he let it show. “Well, that does sound like a terrible mistake on your part.”

Sally didn’t hate herself for what she did next, but rather despised the overwhelming desire she still felt when she took in Poseidon, his stormy yet comforting eyes, the warm grin on his stubbled face, the sense of home that he gave her even when the sea had never called to her before he had stepped out of the sea and walked into her life. No, she didn’t regret that summer on Montauk with him, and she didn’t resent the feelings she still had for him. The only thing she could find it in herself to resent was the impossible distance between them, and that these moments she felt no guilt in stealing could only ever be moments.

And with that, or, rather, without any regret or qualms or sense of unease, Sally stepped around the table to reach Poseidon and pulled him out of his seat, tossing aside his ‘Neptune’s Lucky Fishing Hat’ cap and yanking him by the top opened buttons of his Hawaiian shirt. “So, _Paul._ How long can you stay?”


End file.
